Army Grants Discharge To Officer(Watada) Who Refused Iraq Deployment

[tekisui]

Source: MyStateline

(Honolulu, HI) -- The first commissioned officer to refuse deployment to Iraq has been granted a discharge from the Army.

Friday will be First Lieutenant Ehren Watada's last day in the service.

Watada refused to ship out when his unit was deployed to Iraq in 2006.

He claimed the war was in violation of international law and argued his deployment would constitute participation in a war crime.

The Army attempted to court martial the 31-year-old Hawaii native citing conduct unbecoming of an officer, but the proceedings ended in a mistrial and double jeopardy prevented future attempts to punish him on most counts.

Watada, who has been working a desk job at Fort Lewis in Washington state, has tried to resign from the Army three times.

Despite rejecting his first two requests, Army officials approved his latest resignation, which he submitted over the summer.

Watada is being granted an administrative discharge under what his lawyer calls "other than honorable conditions."

http://mystateline.com/content/fulltext/?cid=103291

[Turbineguy]

1. That was certainly something

that the Bush administration could not allow. Letting him quit would amount to admitting the Iraq invasion was illegal. If you don't get caught, it never happened.

[Curtland1015]

2. Who gave religious pop singer Amy Grant that kind of power!?

:hide: again...

[tekisui]

3. lol.

I read it that way the first time, too.

[Rainngirl]

5. hahaha

Me, too!

[Statistical]

4. "other than honorable" is a punishment.

Despite the positive spin an "other than honorable" is just a step above "dishonorable" and is not going to open any doors.

So saying "grants" is kinda silly. It is like saying Virginia State court "granted" someone a class 1 misdemeanor or Joe "Yeller" Wilson was granted a sanction or Microsoft was "granted" a million dollar fine.

A OTH is the most severe form of administrative discharge. This type of discharge represents a serious departure from the conduct and performance expected of all military members. OTH discharges are typically given to service members convicted by a civilian court in which a sentence of confinement has been adjudged or in which the conduct leading to the conviction brings discredit upon the service. It can also be given as the result of certain civil hearings, like a divorce for adultery. OTH discharges can be accepted in-lieu of court-martial proceedings at the service-member's request. Persons facing OTH are guaranteed, by the Uniform Code of Military Justice, the right to have their discharge heard by an administrative discharge board, which is similar to a court-martial but is not a public forum.

Recipients of OTH discharges are barred from reenlisting into any component of the Armed Forces (including the reserves), and are normally barred from joining the Army National Guard or Air National Guard, except under rare circumstances which require exception-to-policy waivers. As of September 2006, all 50 states had policies barring the reenlistment of UOTHC discharge recipients.

In addition, the majority of veterans' benefits are not available to individuals who receive an other than honorable conditions discharge, including the Montgomery GI Bill and (in most cases) VA healthcare benefits.